1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a motor control apparatus, an image forming apparatus, and a motor control method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a method of controlling a start/stop of a toner supply motor in a toner supply system of an image forming apparatus in order to prevent excessive supply of toner or leakage of toner is known.
Specifically, the known method uses software to perform time management of the toner supply motor in the toner supply system of the image forming apparatus, so that excessive supply of toner or leakage of toner due to continuous driving of the toner supply motor is prevented. For example, see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2007-078753.
However, the method according to the related art which performs the time management of the toner supply motor using the software is vulnerable to the excessive supply of toner or the leakage of toner if the operation of the software is out of control.
Moreover, in a case of a tray lifting motor, there is also a problem that the tray lifting motor is subject to overloading if the operation of the software is out of control.